Chapter 139: Impeccable and Exemplary in Both Art and Morals (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Votes)

Wei Fei is actually quite Buddhist-like in this regard, and her detached attitude bears a slight resemblance to Lin Xing's.

A dozen years ago, Wei Fei was truly at the pinnacle of fame. Every single television drama female lead went to Wei Fei, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that almost all scripts were sent straight to her hands for her to choose from.

At that time, wherever Wei Fei went, she was surrounded by a large entourage, and even her straightforward, no-nonsense personality was praised to the skies. She genuinely had friends everywhere she turned.

Then, gradually, Wei Fei's career began to slide downhill. The friends she used to drink and dine with would completely ignore her when they crossed paths.

Oh my goodness.

Even though Wei Fei had been in the entertainment industry for so long, her career had always been on an upward trajectory until then, so she had naturally never experienced such a sensation.

When she finally noticed that she was no longer surrounded by throngs of people and a cheering crowd, when she discovered that at events she was no longer mobbed and many former acquaintances wouldn't even spare her a greeting, Wei Fei understood.

This was what it meant to be past one's prime.

Given her naturally carefree and breezy disposition, she only felt upset for a few days before she stopped paying attention to it altogether.

So what if she was past her prime?

Being past her prime didn't mean she had retired from the industry.

If there were roles to film, she would continue filming; if there weren't, she would simply live her own life. In any case, Wei Fei had already earned more than enough money to spend as she pleased. Unlike other female artists of her age who would resort to any means necessary to climb the social ladder, why bother?

Why on earth would she do that?

Because of this mindset, combined with the fact that she only accepted roles she genuinely liked and never deliberately avoided anything, she hadn't been able to secure leading roles in recent years, but she still managed to work on quite a few productions.

She never lacked projects, nor did she harbor any desire to make various sacrifices just to claw her way up. Wei Fei had long since grown indifferent to fame and fortune.

It wasn't as if she had never experienced being a mega-star, right?

Unlike those female celebrities who claimed every day that they didn't care about fame while frantically running around participating in reality shows, fighting for billing order, and seizing endorsement deals, Wei Fei had genuinely let go of all that.

Mainly, she wasn't short on money right now; truth be told, she could practically be considered a landlady living off rental income.

Back when she was a student, she had been the campus belle of the Beijing Film Academy, and she started taking on acting roles as early as her freshman year. By her senior year, her acting fees were already substantial enough to buy an apartment in Beijing outright.

Real estate prices in Beijing were still affordable back then.

Consequently, after graduation, Wei Fei's paycheck grew steadily with each project, and she used the earnings to acquire quite a few more properties across Beijing.

This was the source of Wei Fei's quiet confidence.

Back in the day, Wei Fei not only bought property for herself, but she also urged her close friends and besties to invest in real estate. In Wei Fei's own words, a boyfriend might run away, but real estate never would.

Unfortunately, all those friends and besties chose to invest their money in starting businesses instead, only to end up either defrauded or facing catastrophic losses.

Only Wei Fei kept buying property, eventually turning herself into a wealthy woman.

In this regard, Wei Fei was strikingly similar to Lin Xing. Didn't Lin Xing also sink all of his early earnings into purchasing real estate?

Both of them shared a somewhat detached, philosophical outlook on life, yet they approached their work with utmost seriousness, which naturally made their bond exceptionally strong.

As for Wei Fei, she knew full well that her personality was no longer suited for climbing the corporate ladder in the industry, and since she couldn't keep her outspoken nature in check anyway, she simply thought, to hell with it, let whoever cares care, this is just how I am.

As for Lin Xing, however, Wei Fei genuinely believed that his emotional intelligence was extraordinarily high. She was even convinced that Lin Xing would undoubtedly go far in the entertainment industry.

Not to mention the fact that Lin Xing had just bailed her out of an awkward situation today.

Although Wei Fei put up a tough front, claiming she didn't care about anything, if she had actually blurted out Yao Nian's name, it truly wouldn't have boded well for *Portrait Tracker*.

After all, the series was currently in its crucial upward growth phase.

Thus, Wei Fei abruptly decided to opt out of the promotional tour altogether.

She wasn't even one of the main leads to begin with, and since the show featured several fresh new faces, she might as well hand the spotlight over to them.

"Feifei, you..."

Ma Wen paused slightly as he listened to Wei Fei's words.

"Old Ma, I'm being serious. Our show is about to reach its grand finale, so the promotion over the next couple of days is absolutely critical. Sometimes I simply can't control what comes out of my mouth—what if I tag along and accidentally say something inappropriate again?"

Wei Fei interrupted Ma Wen and continued, "I personally don't care, and those trolls might not even dare to curse at me directly, but it would definitely hurt our show and affect newcomers like Lin Maiyin. So, in my opinion, we should just hand these promotional opportunities over to them."

"I think that's completely feasible."

Liu Zhou chimed in from the side, "Feifei shouldn't join the promotional events. Besides, the ones generating the most buzz for *Portrait Tracker* right now are precisely those newcomers. I think it's a great idea to take them out for promotion instead."

"All right then."

Ma Wen nodded gently. "However, Feifei, you still have to participate in the recording of *Starlight Interview* tomorrow morning. That is our production team's very first interview booking."

Wei Fei replied, "No problem."

"A-Xing, you'll have to bear with us tomorrow as well. The recording for *Starlight Interview* starts at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning, just as I discussed with you previously..."

Ma Wen added, "They'll send over the detailed script tonight, and I'll forward it to you once I get it..."

Generally speaking, it was quite normal for an entire cast and crew to appear together on an interview-style variety show.

A large group meant plenty of material, and it only required positioning a few key actors prominently on stage while the rest of the cast could sit comfortably in the audience.

The primary leads of *Portrait Tracker* actually consisted of just five people: Lin Xing, Zhou Wei, Lu Quan, Ning Rong, and Li Chuang. However, the show featured numerous actors across its various episodic units, easily totaling around thirty performers.

If a flash mob style press conference at Sina was considered a small-scale season premiere event, then appearing on *Starlight Interview* felt like a massive family reunion for the entire production team.

However, just like the Sina visit, the primary lead had to be present without fail.

Many people currently described *Portrait Tracker* as a web series that masqueraded as a dual-male-lead show while actually giving a voice to women, primarily because the majority of the victims in the show's cases were female.

Yet, Lin Xing was the undisputed primary lead of this drama—the true number one bill.

No matter how much people debated the individual cases, even the most stubborn antis had to concede one undeniable point: Lin Xing was single-handedly carrying *Portrait Tracker* on his shoulders.

Within the fictional world of the show, the narrative anchor rested squarely on Lin Xing.

Outside the show, all the promotional traffic and buzz for *Portrait Tracker* were driven by Lin Xing.

Imagine if Lin Xing hadn't shown up for an interview variety show like *Starlight Interview*—what would that even look like?

What difference would it make from a groom failing to show up at his own wedding?

"Director Ma, you can't possibly call this a hardship."

Lin Xing said with a smile, "It's all for the sake of promotion."

"Right, for now, *Starlight Interview* requires your participation, but you can skip the subsequent interviews. At most, you might just need to do a few video check-ins with everyone during your ongoing shoots."

Ma Wen said with a laugh, "However, you must attend the celebration banquet. Both our company and Tencent Video have already agreed that this time, we're going to throw a massive celebration."

Liu Zhou smiled and remarked, "We should've thrown a massive one ages ago. If they had given us more resources initially, our show might have blown up even sooner. Oh well, better late than never—we can make up for it at the celebration banquet."

"Old Ma, the success of *Portrait Tracker* this time around is entirely your achievement. Back then, plenty of people mocked you, saying that preparing this show was purely an emotional gamble, and Tencent Video didn't even grant us a tier-two recommendation..."

Wei Fei was looking at the process in reverse, judging it by the final outcome.

Her initial expectation had simply been that the premiere of *Portrait Tracker* would constitute a victory in itself, and because of that mindset, it felt only natural that the web series had suffered unfair treatment.

After all, from any conceivable angle, *Portrait Tracker* had all the hallmarks of a complete bomb.

Tencent Video hadn't even offered a splash-screen recommendation, let alone wasting a tier-two recommendation on them.

If *Portrait Tracker* had truly flopped, all of that neglect would have been entirely expected.

Never mind Wei Fei; even Ma Wen and the others had felt that it was only normal for a failing show to be overlooked.

But things were different now.

*Portrait Tracker* hadn't flopped at all; instead, it had exploded in popularity.

It took a mere five days for the show to transition from disastrous premiere ratings to an absolute explosion in viewership.

Viewing it backward from the final result:

What if you had actually allocated some resources to *Portrait Tracker* right from the start? Is it possible the show would have gone viral the very second it premiered?

Not only Wei Fei, but the entire production team of *Portrait Tracker* was analyzing the situation based on its ultimate success.

Even the audience felt the exact same way.

"That's why our resources suddenly multiplied out of nowhere recently."

Ma Wen laughed and said, "My voice carries so much more weight at the company these days."

While the main creators of *Portrait Tracker* were dining together after wrapping up their Sina visit, the online discussion regarding this live-stream broadcast was skyrocketing on Weibo.

Some netizens had even painstakingly extracted all the key highlights from the live session, focusing particularly on the behind-the-scenes footage of *The Screenwriter's Murder Case*, which left many utterly perplexed.

"I just want to ask if the production team can release this behind-the-scenes clip already??"

"Seriously! If Zhou Wei hadn't mentioned it, I would never have known this footage even existed. Hurry up and drop it!"

"Wait, it's one thing for Zhou Wei to say the footage was intense, but why did the other actors also treat it as such a profound memory?"

"I'm dying to see this footage, release it already!"

...

"Exactly! Do you guys even know how to promote a show? Whatever behind-the-scenes footage you have, put it out there immediately!"

"I'm honestly speechless. It feels like *Portrait Tracker* is being carried entirely by word-of-mouth. Damn it, the marketing and PR team are utterly useless."

"Spot on, the marketing is terrible. Come on, the food is already spoon-fed to your mouth, the least you can do is spit it out."

...

The volume of discussions surrounding *Portrait Tracker* on Weibo surged exponentially, and since the Sina visit had ended less than half an hour prior, the momentum was naturally fierce.

In particular, Sina was forcefully pushing the trending topics, seeing as *Portrait Tracker*'s participation in their live-stream had shattered previous records.

At 3:00 PM, the official Weibo account of *Portrait Tracker* finally released the behind-the-scenes footage.

"#PortraitTracker# Here is the behind-the-scenes footage of Teacher Lin that everyone has been asking for."

...

"This behind-the-scenes clip is pretty long, holy crap, but it finally makes sense why Zhou Wei was so deeply impressed by this scene."

"Lin Xing is genuinely insane, hahaha, he actually knows how to do masonry work!"

"Right? And you've got to hand it to him, Lin Xing's masonry skills look genuinely impressive."

"Lin Xing learned masonry on *Let's Farm*, and he actually ended up using it in *Portrait Tracker*."

...

"Lin Xing really does love every single profession he tries. Anyone who didn't know any better would honestly think he was a professional bricklayer."

"Damn, I finally understand the saying 'skills never weigh a person down'."

"No wonder everyone kept saying Lin Xing was helping out everywhere on set."

...

Clearly, the official Weibo account of *Portrait Tracker* knew how to take advice, directly releasing the footage of Lin Xing doing masonry work.

The most crucial part was that anyone with a discerning eye could tell this footage wasn't staged.

Unlike many current film and television projects that loved to push short promotional clips boasting about how "the actor's acting skills were explosive and left the director stunned"—all of which felt utterly cliché and identical.

*Portrait Tracker* hadn't relied on that kind of promotion from start to finish.

In fact, this behind-the-scenes footage was only released after repeated public demands.

Some netizens commented: "I feel like *Portrait Tracker* poured all its effort into the actual drama itself. The show didn't exploit 'women's suffering' as a promotional gimmick, nor did it market itself according to the current 'universal marketing formula'. A drama like this deserves to blow up."

This viewpoint received likes and agreement from countless users.

It wasn't about stepping on other shows, but *The Correct Way to Independence* had suffered a catastrophic script collapse, naturally leaving audiences deeply dissatisfied, especially given its pretentious marketing campaign bragging about being a grand female-centric drama that spoke up for women.

And the result?

Everyone saw it firsthand—it was a masterclass in melodramatic cliché, shamelessly leeching off the hype of independent women.

In contrast, *Portrait Tracker* was built entirely on sincerity, never resorting to cheap gimmicks during promotion. Even though people complained that its marketing was abysmal and relied entirely on word-of-mouth.

Every single person involved, from the screenwriters to the director and the actors, was remarkably sincere.

Sincerity is the ultimate killer move.

The next day, at 8:00 AM, Beijing Television.

*Starlight Interview*, dressing room.

"Teacher Lin, do you have any objections to the script?"

An assistant approached Lin Xing to discuss the upcoming schedule.

Ninety percent of the focus for this episode of *Starlight Interview* would be centered squarely on Lin Xing.

Furthermore, almost the entire interview content revolved around him.

Especially since *Starlight Interview* had held an emergency overnight meeting following the release of Lin Xing's Sina interview the previous afternoon, where his responses to several questions had been exceptionally articulate.

To reiterate: sincerity was key.

Recognizing that this exact brand of sincerity was precisely what *Starlight Interview* needed, the production team had restructured some of the key talking points and consulted with Lin Xing beforehand.

"I have no objections to the script."

Lin Xing shook his head slightly and said, "However, today is an interview session for the *Portrait Tracker* production team, so I still hope the subsequent conversation can keep its focus on the show itself."

"That goes without saying."

The assistant quickly replied.

After all, while Lin Xing was the primary focus, the drama *Portrait Tracker* was also massively popular. Therefore, while ninety percent of the focus would be on Lin Xing, a vast majority of that ninety percent would naturally revolve around the show.

At 8:40 AM, the audience members began filing into the studio in succession.

*Starlight Interview* featured two hosts—one male and one female. The male host was responsible for conducting the interview, while the female host helped set the mood and kept the conversation flowing smoothly.

The male host was named Xiang Chuan, the premier leading host of Beijing Television.

The female host was named Li Yan, who used to be an actress playing minor extra roles just to get her face recognized before transitioning into hosting as her primary career.

"Everyone, please pay attention. Could we ask everyone to give a round of applause shortly? We're about to start the official recording..."

The assistant director instructed the audience to applaud beforehand—in plain terms, recording applause tracks to be used later in editing.

At 9:00 AM, once all departments confirmed they were ready, the recording officially commenced.

"Hello everyone, hello audience friends, welcome to today's *Starlight Interview*, I am your host, Xiang Chuan."

"Hello everyone, I am your host, Li Yan."

...

With a simple opening monologue from Xiang Chuan and Li Yan, the recording of *Starlight Interview* officially got underway.

The creative team of *Portrait Tracker* was invited onto the stage one by one.

Today, screenwriter Wang Yi, Lao Li, and director Liu Zhou had all arrived at the recording set.

Then, the actors took the stage in sequence.

Thank goodness the stage was spacious enough; otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to accommodate so many performers.

Lin Maiyin had naturally arrived at the venue as well.

The rest of the actors were seated in the audience seats for the time being, while Wang Yi, Lao Li, Liu Zhou, Lin Xing, and Zhou Wei took their seats on the main stage.

Originally, the hosts had planned to invite Wei Fei to sit on the stage as well.

However, Wei Fei insisted that she preferred to sit in the audience with the rest of the cast and crew.

Both Xiang Chuan and Li Yan thought Wei Fei was truly approachable, completely unconcerned with billing or spotlight, practically bordering on being a paragon of artistic integrity and moral character.

In reality, Wei Fei was simply terrified. She had already slipped up during the live-stream yesterday; if she messed up again on stage today, it would be too embarrassing.

It was much safer to simply play a background role.

Next came the formal interview segment.

For instance, why did they choose Lin Xing?

"Actually, it wasn't a matter of us choosing Lin Xing; we should be grateful that Lin Xing chose our production."

Liu Zhou said with a smile, "If Lin Xing hadn't participated in this drama, I don't think we would have achieved such a massive success."

As for screenwriter Lao Li, he revealed, "Initially, I wasn't entirely confident about casting Lin Xing, but later on, Lin Xing completely won me over."

Zhou Wei also shared a behind-the-scenes anecdote: "During our very first scene, I didn't take my acting opposite Lin Xing seriously at all. I thought I could easily crush him, but while acting with him, I was thoroughly taught a lesson in humility."

The primary focus of this episode's interview was sharing behind-the-scenes stories from the filming process.

Liu Zhou even disclosed, "Actually, our production wasn't smooth sailing during filming. Both Lin Maiyin and Jiang Li were emergency fill-ins, and both of them were actually recommended by Lin Xing."

When this was brought up, Xiang Chuan asked for the specific details.

Liu Zhou then briefly explained the situation.

At that moment, the camera cut to Lin Maiyin in the audience. She spoke into the mic, "I want to thank Brother Xing, because he helped me figure out how to portray the character of Liu Zitong, and how to approach this role..."

Among the various cases featured in *Portrait Tracker*, *The Campus Corpse Case* was arguably the most heartbreaking and poignant, while Lin Maiyin's portrayal of Liu Zitong left a deep impression on countless viewers.

Then came Jiang Li.

Compared to Lin Maiyin, Jiang Li showed much more visible emotion: "I genuinely never expected Teacher Lin to remember me, let alone recommend me for this role. Moreover, Teacher Lin took the initiative to analyze the character with me and explain how to perform it..."

"Actually, I used to be an actor too. Especially during periods when I had no work, the despair was overwhelming. Sometimes I fantasized about someone reaching out a helping hand, but there were simply too many actors, and I lacked talent, so I eventually switched careers to become a host..."

As a fellow host, Li Yan deeply empathized with Jiang Li's words. After offering a few comforting remarks, she turned to Lin Xing and asked, "Lin Xing, what made you think of recommending these two?"

"I just felt they were a good fit."

Lin Xing thought for a moment and replied, "Lin Maiyin was a great match for the character of Liu Zitong, and although Jiang Li didn't have much screen time in *Sweeping the Wild Storm*, everyone could clearly see his capability. Therefore, I believed he could handle this role well, and I proactively introduced him to the director."

The rest of the interview continued to revolve largely around Lin Xing.

From discussing Lin Xing's role as a portrait artist in *Portrait Tracker*, the conversation transitioned to his performance in his previous work, *Sweeping the Wild Storm*.

Naturally, it culminated in the inevitable question: Did Lin Xing consider himself a truly skilled, performance-driven actor now?

In short, from the beginning of the recording to the end, nearly every question was anchored around Lin Xing.

Yet, Lin Xing invariably managed to steer the conversation back toward the other cast members.

For instance, mentioning the masonry behind-the-scenes clip:

"Actually, I was genuinely startled by Wu Qing's performance at the time, because she acted so brilliantly. She perfectly captured the character's inferiority complex, sensitivity, neuroticism, and total breakdown..."

Lin Xing said with a smile, "And Li Fei, when filming the scene where she gets buried in wet cement, she had zero baggage as an actress. Everyone shared a single starting point: to make the scene as good as it could possibly be."

These remarks successfully brought Wu Qing and Li Fei into the spotlight with close-up camera shots.

Following that were the two female leads from *The Domestic Violence Counter-Kill Case*, the female lead from *The Butterfly Rape Case*, and so on.

Put simply, Lin Xing's balancing of screen time and praise was utterly flawless.

Finally, he even brought up veteran actors Wang Shan and Jiang Tang.

He expressed deep admiration and respect for both veteran actors, praising their exceptional acting prowess and sterling personal character.

Oh, and by the way.

Lin Xing took the opportunity to mention that his upcoming project, *Bad Kids*, would also feature a collaboration with these two esteemed veterans.

Look at that.

Even during an interview, Lin Xing didn't forget to casually promote his new drama, *Bad Kids*.

By 11:50 AM, the recording of this episode of *Starlight Interview* had officially concluded.

"Teacher Lin, thank you for your hard work."

Li Yan quickly walked over to Lin Xing's side and asked, "Could I take a photo with you? I'm actually a huge fan of yours."

"Of course."

Lin Xing chuckled and replied, "I didn't do any hard work, you guys are the ones who worked hard taking care of all us guests the entire time."

*Click!*

Once the photo was taken, several audience members lingered behind, all hoping to snag a quick picture with Lin Xing.

A staff member walked over to Lin Xing and said somewhat apologetically, "Teacher Lin, quite a few audience members don't want to leave yet, they're all hoping to get a photo with you. Do you think we could select a few of them for photos?"

"How about this, go tell the audience members who want photos to wait for just a moment. Once everyone else has cleared out of the venue, we can take the photos..."

Lin Xing instructed, "Let's make sure things stay orderly, and I'll try my best to take a photo with every single audience member who wants one."

It wasn't like there was an overwhelming crowd, and Lin Xing genuinely didn't mind.

When the staff relayed this message, many of the remaining audience members instantly lit up with excitement.

Even Li Yan remarked with a tone of profound admiration, "Teacher Lin, you are truly wonderful."

Aside from a handful of veteran actors, which young traffic idol could ever manage to be this approachable?

Even most veteran actors lacked that kind of patience.

He was truly a paragon of artistic integrity and moral character.

Roughly half an hour later, Lin Xing finally finished taking photos with the remaining audience members.

Accompanied by Wang Shan and Jiang Tang, Lin Xing headed straight to the airport.

That afternoon, they were scheduled to fly directly to Hong Kong to begin filming *Bad Kids*.

As for the rest of the cast, they were gearing up for tomorrow's live-stream visit at Tencent Video.

After all, *Portrait Tracker* was set to air its grand finale that very night, meaning tomorrow would undoubtedly be the peak of its online buzz.

As the broadcasting platform, how could Tencent Video possibly let such an opportunity slip through their fingers?

...

...

The pace of the story will pick up from here. Thank you to all readers for your tolerance and support, and I sincerely wish everyone peace, safety, and good health.

(End of this chapter)